1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the arts of electrical connectors, and particularly to an electrical connector comprising a plurality of electrical terminals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,180 discloses a male terminal for an electrical connector and having a contact portion for electrically contacting with a pair of beams of a female terminal of a complementary electrical connector. The male terminal is formed with a lead-in portion twisted with respect to the contact portion to comply with configurations of the beams of the female terminal. The male terminal is not easily adaptable for miniaturization beyond a certain point, i.e., for reducing individual terminal size in order to produce denser arrays of terminal size in order to produce denser arrays of terminals in increasingly smaller packages. Furthermore, the solid lead-in portion of the male terminal has limited mating depth and does not generally permit applications in which sequential or staggered mating may be required. They may provide potential problems in some specific connector applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,290,181 discloses another male terminal including a contact portion and a splited lead-in portion for guiding a pair of spring arms of a female terminal to electrically contact with the contact portion. The male terminal is relatively difficult to manufacture since diverging beams of the lead-in portion of each male terminal extend in directions different from each other and different from the rest sections of the male terminal, thereby increasing the cost of the electrical connector using the same.
Therefore, an improved electrical connector is desired to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
A major object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector comprising a plurality of easily adaptable and easily manufacturable electrical terminals.
An electrical connector in accordance with the present invention comprises an insulative housing and a plurality of electrical terminals. The insulative housing comprises a base portion defining a plurality of passageways and a mating portion extending from the base portion and defining a receiving cavity in communication with the passageways. Every two electrical terminals are inserted through one of the passageways and each comprises a retention portion retained to the base portion, a tail portion extending rearwardly from the retention portion beyond the insulative housing, a contact portion extending forwardly from the retention portion into the receiving cavity and a tab extending forwardly from the contact portion in the receiving cavity. The retention portions, the tail portions and the contact portions of the every two electrical terminals are vertically stacked. The tabs of the every two electrical terminals are laterally offset from each other and extend slantedly away from each other.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.